Maternal and Young Child Nutrition Security Initiative in Asia Field Visit

        Susanita Tesiorna was invited by the Unicef Philippines to join the MDG stakeholders on maternal and young child nutrition last Oct 5 which was held at DOST, Taguig City and debriefing on Oct. 7 at the Tiara Hotel in Makati. The UICEF Team were :  1)Christina Lopriore, EU/NAS, 2) Anja Bauer, EU Philippine Delegation, 3) Rita Bustamante, EU Philippine Delegation, 4) Dorothy Foote, UNICEF Regional Office, 4) Pura Rayco-Solon, UNICEF Philippines, and 5) Maria Evelyn Carpio, UNICEF Philippines.          

          UNICEF and the European Union are collaborating improve child survival, growth and development through nutrition security and life cycle interventions within the Southeast and South Asia Regions, with the Philippines as one of five focus countries (along with Bangladesh, Indonesia, Loa PDR, and Nepal).  The Maternal and Young Child Nutrition Security in Asia programme would like to position nutrition security in the policy and development agenda of the country and to strengthen capacities and information systems, build on lessons learned and scale up high impact interventions for children and women.

The programme will focus on a number of evidence-based, cost-effective, and high-impact interventions to improve nutrition security among women and young children. Through linkages with both health and non-health sectors, a multi-sectoral approach to addressing the immediate and underlying causes of undernutrition will be addressed. The programme aims to reduce stunting rates among young children by 5 percentage points, and anemia among young children and pregnant women by a third.

          Other presenters during at the DOST were Asec. Bernie Flores of DOH, DOST director, Food and Agriculture representative, Dang Buenaventura of ECOP, Ginger, an ILO Consultant for the Breastfeeding in the Workplace and Flor Cabatingan of DAWN-TUCP.